With more than 40 books to her credit, author Suzanne Brockmann has made her mark in the military suspense field. Now she's looking to score in a whole other area. According to Ballantine, Brockmann's newest bestseller,

Hot Target (#9 this week), includes the "first high-profile mainstream contemporary romance novel to feature an in-depth romance between gay characters." According to Brockmann, most gay characters in mainstream genre fiction "tend to be asexual." As the mother of a gay son, Brockmann is very involved in the gay rights movement and wants her readers to see her character, Jules Cassidy, "as a person just like every other person on this planet, searching for a connection, struggling with issues of love and intimacy—and sharing a steamy kiss or two along the way." First Target printing is 102,000; Brockmann's latest mass market bestseller, Flashpoint, has 536,000 copies in print after four printings.